.

THE
PHILIPPINE STAR

i 4slils MONDAY I FEBRUARY 18,2019

Bill abolishing
Road Board now
on Duterte's desk
By PAOLO ROMERO

The bill abolishing the graft-ridden Road

Board is now on Presldent Duterte's desk for
his sisnature.
HJuse Bill 7436, which was adopted by
the Senatg to dispense with the legislative
process of reconciling differing provisions
bf the respective verslons of the two cham-
bers of Congress, was transmitted by the
Presidential-Legislative Liaison Office to
Malacafiang on Feb. 8.
The mealure will lapse into law if the
President fails to act on it within 30 days
Turn to Page 8

Duterte said billions of pesos in rev-

Bill FromPasel enue from the road user's tax found their
way to corrupt officials' pockets.
Duterte in 2017 asked Congress to The Commission on Audit (COA) has
legislate the abolition of the Road Board, consistently flagged the utilization of
which manages funds from the Motor MVUC funds.
Vehicle User'sCharge. fhe MVUC ispart Senate President Vicente Sotto III also
of the fees for annual vehicle registration. said the agency is collecting about PJ2
He said the abolition is part of the gov- billion a year in road users' taxes.
ernment's effort to streamline sewices arLd COA has questioned the use of about
stop corruption in the agency. P90 billion of the over P160 billion fund
The MVUC collections are supposed to last year, he added.
be used exclusively for road maintenance From 2001 to May 2018, the total collec-
and improvement of road drainage, in- tion for MVIJC reached P166.18 bilfion. At
.' amouirt have
stallation of traffic lights and road sa{ety least P136.87 billion of that
devices, as well as air pollution control. been released. ':

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